The Serpent's Coils
by Miss Miazaki
Summary: She stumbles in. He takes fascination. She wants him, no matter what anyone says. He wants her... For an experiment-or two-maybe three. But whatever. she can't escape; He's got her wrpapped in his coils. Or, is he slowly being wound into hers? OrochiXOC!
1. Chapter 1

Miss Mia: Well it's me again. Yes I know I already have stuff out, but my best friend challenged me to a contest to see whose stories are better. A real Shadow-hunter never backs down from a challenge!

Since she doesn't like Alec and Magnus like I do, we decided to use Naruto as a common medium.

Oh yeah, and the stories are OC falling in love with an existing character. The Oc's _**will**_be representations of me and PrincessVegeta (my BFF).

I haven't given up on Ring of Lillith (just a bit stuck in transition), and Nervous game will only be updated when I get the inspiration to.

If you're wondering why I chose Orochimaru as my lover, just think of what he could do to my little lady self with that tongue *shivers*.

Princess V: Alright! Enough outta you, you little Nasty! (Her lover of choice is Itachi)

Miss Mia: You're just pissed 'cause you know I'll win!

You guys will make me win right?

**Go read Princess's too. It's not a contest without smexy judges**

**M for a reason (later)…Don't like don't read****.**

/

Out of the Mist

The small child tripped and stumbled as everything on the forest floor seemed intent on getting in her way, tripping, and her slowing her down. Slow down is one thing she couldn't do, especially not with the Mist-Nin tailing her. They had sharp things that only mother and father were supposed to use, not her.

But now, she also had one, clenched in her tiny fist. If wasn't as if she were disobeying the child was a _very_ good girl (Or maybe not), her mother had entrusted her with this sharp thing. She knew how to use it. She watched closely, and her hands did the movement as if by magic. She didn't want to use it though.

The sharp things made blood spill! She wanted to avoid that. So she took the alternative to fight- flight. But flight was hard for the child. She was so soft, so round. Dimpled and chubby without being sickeningly so, as a child should be. On top of that, she had only just recently learned to walk. It had been a few days before her first birthday, which they had celebrated three months before.

It was strange. The thing that all humans picked up quickly, she struggled with. The things she never should be able to do, she could. Walking was a problem for her, as crawling had been before that. Even speaking. She could speak even as she was leaning to sit straight.

She almost tripped, but caught. "The soil is damp!" she realized, happiness making her have to hold in a giggle, she couldn't make a sound now. She had managed it all the way from the house without making a single noise, and making on now would be a fatal mistake.

She was almost there!

"Head to the river," Her mother said this in a tone that made the child lose all thoughts of disobeying her mother to soothe her blazing curiosity. "Yes Mama," agreed the child, opening her mouth wide for the scroll her mother wanted to push past her lips. These were simple orders for a child whose mother was a dangerous workaholic Mist-Nin and whose father was a careless, but deadly defected Sound-Nin. She was well trained enough to know she wasn't seeing her mother, but a water clone of the woman.

She grimaced at the feeling of the foreign chakra settling in next to her own, but obediently began running in the direction of the river, not once doubting that her mother's cleverness would fail to get her out of this.

But in the present with rushing water _so close _on one side and the Mist-Nin possibly even closer on the other side. Suddenly a smooth wet rock tripped her and she went flying. The water hit her and made all the air rush out of her lungs. Before she fainted, she recalled her Mothers stern, but loving, mahogany colored face, and the wickedly curved sword that she always carried with her. She remembered her father, whom her mother called teasingly "good for nothing" because he preferred to sit around singing and reading rather than working. In the workings of her mind both were saying "We love you _ori_" there was a blank where her name should go. She could only remember those two syllables, the others were lost in the trauma she got hitting the water. The shiny blue world grayed, and then faded to black.

At the bottom of the river, swaying with the swift currents lay the serpent. Or a water snake to be more accurate, but one that lived in fresh water and was far larger than any snake should be (Bigger even, than Manda), thereby, a serpent. Its scales were blue like the waters he rested in, tipped with white like where the foam frothed up over the rocks. His eyes were like the rick river mud that sifted in-between river rocks that had been smoothed out with time.

The serpent began to get agitated, there was something floating in his home-river. "Unforgivable!" he rose to the surface with a swish of his coils, planning to punish the impertinent human that dare swim in his river or dump anything inside, Instead of a foolish human he could easily vent on, he found a human hatchling floating in the water. Last the serpent had checked, human hatchlings were made for that.

He brought a portion of his coiled up to wrap around the small thing and lift it out f the water. He squeezed as gently as he could, still managing to make water rush out of the girls mouth and nose. She coughed weakly, and dark lashes opened out around dark eyes. The serpent was instantly fond of the small squishy thing whose face was the color of coffee that was mostly milk. This translated almost seamlessly into hatred of the Ninja who were throwing Kunai in an obvious attempt to harm the child.

He reared up to his full height and bared his fangs menacingly. Both Nin paled and ran in the other direction. "Cowards," hissed the serpent, making sure the girl was secure in his coils before reverse summoning into the Hebi Village.

In a puff of strangely shaped smoke, they reappeared in a place that made the small child clamp her still wet hands over her mouth. She looked upwards and gasped. Overhead rushed the largest river in all the continents. The light filtered through the water, giving the whole cave a blue-green glow.

As a defense you couldn't just appear in the middle of the Hebi-Village. You appeared in one of these caves and had to navigate you way through. All serpents knew the way just flicking their tongues as if scenting the air. It wasn't something learned. Humans only entered by the grace of the serpents.

Even as a young serpent you didn't know how to do it, till you had done it. This is why hatchlings rarely left the village on their own.

"Kirei! So pretty!" exclaimed the young child, putting her hands up towards the light as if she would be able to catch it. She watched it play over her fingers for a moment, and then she turned her dark eyes to look at him. "How?" She asked, intelligent curiosity burning in her eyes. Then she stumbled and fell on her bottom, not seeming bothered at all, she got back up and returned her attention to the light.

But unlike most other children who would have forgotten their questions, the serpent could tell by her expression she still expected and answer. The serpent wondered whether to simplify his explanation or tell her straight at the risk of her being either insulted or confused respectively.

He decided to tell her he wasn't completely sure himself, even though he regretted it where a crestfallen look came over her face. She pouted. The expression went straight to the serpent's heart. He promised to introduce her to someone who could explain it better than he. He sighed. She was going to be a heartbreaker if she could pull that kind of pouts on anyone.

The serpent let the child ride on his back as he slithered through the strangely illuminated caverns. He gave her his name, which was Hebi, simply because he was the oldest in serpent in existence. He asked her name, but she had only been able to recall two syllables. She tried to remember, but it only made her head hurt. She cried out as pain laced through her. Her forehead wrinkled in an expression that would show she was her father's daughter, if only she could remember.

"Can't remember," she moaned, letting her head fall against the smooth scales of Hebi. "Then we will simply invent a new name for you, darling," the serpent soothed her. She nodded, "It has to have 'Ori' in it!" she blurted out. Her eyes made it stated that she wasn't taking no for an answer. The serpent obliged, inclining his head towards her. He decided he would combine the first word he had heard her say with syllable she had insisted on.

"Then from now onwards you shall be known as Orikirei, because you're so pretty." the compliment made the girl blush, giggle softly and press her hands to her cheeks. But then she began to shiver. The serpent then remembered that human hatchlings were not supposed to stay cold or wet for very long.

The serpent appraised her outfit. It was comprised of a knee length camouflage coat with a hood, a T-shirt, little shorts, and little moccasin like shoes. The clothes were soaked, so they were removed with the exception of the shorts, which upon further inspection proved to be water repellant and still dry.

Orikirei seemed not to miss her clothes that much. In fact, she seemed happier to be rid of them than anything else.

Eventually they reached the Hebi's Village. Snakes of all sizes and colors milled about. Occasionally one "poofed" out of existence due to it having been summoned. The sun shone down as kindly as it could on the new arrival. The river had slowed and wound lazily through the valley between the mountains. The Hebi village was built around this river.

The child lifted her face to the sky, welcoming the suns warmth onto her light brown skin. The serpent was finally able to see the color of her eyes. They were the darkest of browns without being black. Around the outside edge of dark brown was a ring of actual pure black. When she lowered her eyes away from the sunlight, they seemed black as coal. And fathomless. If the serpent were not so old and experienced, he would have shivered under their gaze.

"Those are dangerous eyes," thought the serpent. "She will fit in well here." The child ran around, smiling brightly at things that amused her, but the serpent had the feeling that he would not be able to sneak up behind her. He watched her closely; her gait wasn't as smooth as that of most humans her age, but he trusted that time would remedy this. If not, there were always... alternative measures that could be taken. The girl began to make friends, and she seemed to have an eye for hebi with influence because she had already enchanted many of them.

As she played in the relative safety of the valley, he arranged teachers in academics as well as fighting and stealth. Judging by the caliber of the Mist-nin that were chasing her, she would need as much help as she could get.


	2. A Winters Encounter

**A/N:** I know the chapters are short, but this is the length Princess (princess vegeta: last female uchiha: go!go!go!) likes to make her chapters, and it's easier for me to shorten than for her to lengthen. Anyways, she was 1 or two in the last chapter and she's going to be about four in this one. This is the chapter in which Orochimaru is introduced, but nothing like _**that**_ happens, I can hear you perverts snickering already. ;P

A Winter's Encounter

Orochimaru didn't expect to be summoned to the Hebi village, even less than that did he expect the leader of the village, Hebi (as he was called) to drop a pouting four year old into his lap. She looked sourly up at him, her eyebrows knitted together and her lips curved downwards. An aura of defiance seemed to come off of her in waves. She glared, and then tuned her head sharply away from him.

Unlike when the serpent first found her, she actually showed more signs of her dark skinned heritage. Her lips were fuller, and her hair which was bound into two ponytails was curly. The curls bounced as she shook her head. "Why can't I just hibernate this year too?" Orochimaru noted that her speech was exceptionally clear for her age.

The serpent simply ignored her; a skill that must have come from millions of years of practice because Orochimaru had a feeling the look she was shooting at Hebi could kill a large dog for all the venom it held. She turned and glared at Orochimaru as if this in any way was his fault. This was when he noticed one of the bands holding her hair its ponytail was thicker, and striped. On second though, it wasn't a haio5rband at all, rather it was a snake. A coral snake with red and cream colored stripes. She jumped off his lap and ran off. Hebi turned to him and after a moment of letting him sit there with a confused expression on his face, decided to explain the situation.

The girl reappeared beside him, making Orochimaru jump. But Hebi seemed to be used to it. "How did you-"he said, cutting his sentence off in favor of just staring. Orochimaru raised his eyebrows 'no chakra spike, and there's no way she could be that stealthy.' She smiled sweetly at him, and Orochimaru got chills. 'What a strange child' he thought.

The thing was that serpents as part of their nature hibernated during winter. Unless, of course, they were summoned, they would sleep the winter away. When she was younger, she had been a rather lazy child. Also, she had been chubby. Thereby it hadn't really been very important to have someone awake to watch her the whole winter.

But somehow, between ages two and four she had gained a whole new level of energy and was impossible to keep in once place for more than a few minutes. Also, she had become a troublemaker. If you took your eyes off her, for one second, she would find something unbreakable... and proceed to break it. It was a skill she had.

Orochimaru's reading glasses had somehow ended up in the girls hands, he didn't minds. They had been advertised as unbreakable, and he himself had bent them in every possible direction after paying for them. He looked up to the serpents "So I'm assuming you want me to watch her over the winter and take-" "**SNAP**!"

"Oopsie?" Her eyes were wide and apologetic, but Orochimaru could see underneath she had enjoyed the challenge of destroying his "indestructible glasses." Orochimaru then began to worry that watching this child could prove to be rather... unpleasant. But from the words of Hebi, he didn't have much of a choice. They could have his head on a stake within seconds if they wanted to.

"Her name is Orihime, take good care of her." The girl raised her eyebrow at her serpent guardian (he had just changed her name after-all) but said nothing. It was beginning to snow. She knew she would have to leave, as little as she liked the idea.

She was heavy, but to hell if it anything one of the legendary San-nin could handle. He didn't blame her falling asleep in the crook of his neck the way she did. She had walked with him through many villages and cities... before sitting down in one spot and refusing to move any further. Well no one said she was the _perfect_ traveling companion. Orochimaru shrugged; at least she wasn't a whiner. She had held out longer than most children her age would. He sat down on bench, and she woke up.

Looking around blearily her she rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. Her eyes focused on him. He knew what she saw. He had traded his pale complexion for a darker only a few shades darker than that of the girl on his lap. He traded his silky, chin length, black hair for a wild afro. His eyes however, remained the same.

Orochimaru realized he didn't really have anything against having to take her on a grand tour of the continent as a learning experience in the middle of winter. Traveling allowed him to add new jutsus to his ever-growing arsenal. That, paired with the fact that she was pretty simple to care for and pretty independent allowed Orochimaru to view her as somewhat as a companion rather than as a burden.

What made him hate her a good deal less than other children? For one thing she was very cute and they got across borders easier when the people were focusing more on her dimples than on the forged papers. She rarely cried over trivial things as many children were prone to doing. When he couldn't come up with a bedtime story for her on the first night together, she had only pouted for a moment, and then asked him to explain a jutsu to her instead (which Orochimaru of all people could do, countless times, without repeating once). She watched him with fascination and had once even been able to do the jutsu herself after delaying bedtime half an hour to try it, and then try it again, and again. Orochimaru even had fleeting thoughts about making him her apprentice when she was older.

Molten gold with slit pupils regarded the small child with something akin to fondness. During his life in the leaf, the time he had spent with children was a time he really didn't like to go back to. They had been annoying, blathering on endlessly about nothing in its entirety. Over the past few days he had learned the limits of her eloquence, but had never heard her chatter endlessly when there was really nothing to say. She was straight to the point. He liked that.

She was strange child. She was smart, but her body was lagging behind her brain. Her mouth simply couldn't pronounce some of the words she wanted to use. The first time Orochimaru had seen her do this he had laughed. And yet it had made him look at her with a wondering look in his eyes, she really was still a child after-all. There were other actions of hers that went well with this point. For example when she needed to get to the restroom, she would dance and hop around until they had reached it. She left vegetables on her plate, and if he tried to force her to eat them, she would throw a tantrum that ended with Orochimaru having to pay large sums of money in collateral damage and hospital fees. Then, she would pout. And after watching that pout for a few seconds, you started to believe it was your fault not hers.

Somehow during his musings, she had navigated her way into his lap and dozed off again. He looked out to the playground many children played there. Happy in their own worlds. Orochimaru smirked as he wondered how many of them would be able to understand and survive the ninja world. He could see a few who would die as gen-nin already. As for the girl in his lap, he suspected she would survive more due to brains than brawn. He already saw cunning sparking up in her eyes, soon the flames would curl, and then a bonfire would rage.

Slowly the playground emptied out. One by one the children waved goodbye and followed their parents home with thoughts of dinner and a cozy bed to sleep in. Eventually all the children had been picked up or had walked home with friends' families but one. "Poor jinchurikki child," thought the snake San-nin. He jostled her gently to try and wake her. She was awake after only a few moments of grogginess, eyes already alert and taking in the entire situation at a quick speed. "See that child?" asked the snake man, pointing at the small blonde sitting on the swings. "He's a jinchurikki. He has no family. Will you not you go play with him a little?" empathy shone in now warm brown eyes. "Kay." she replied, still too tired to bother forming sentences.

Orochimaru dusted some of the winter snow off of Orihime's coat. He didn't want to risk her getting sick, but she seemed to have a pretty strong immune system. "Wait," she said, her eyes now dark and full of mischief. "Won't you miss me while I'm gone?" she asked, her smirk oozing self-confidence a four year old shouldn't have while twining a curl around her finger in a way a four year old wasn't supposed to know how. Orochimaru rolled his eyes at her "I'll survive," he deadpanned, pushing her gently in the playgrounds direction.

Her curls bounced as she skipped down the slope that led towards the playground. Orochimaru checked his wallet, eventually she would come back demanding ramen, and if he couldn't give it to her, there would be hell to pay.

To say the blonde was surprised when the petit dark skinned girl sat down next to him on the swing "hey," she greeted, grinning widely. He didn't dare smile, for if he did, she would surely catch sight of his fangs (courtesy of the nine tails) and hate him the way the other people living in the hidden leaf village did. "You're the Kyubi kid, am I right?" she asked without silly preamble. The blue eyed boy flinched "who told you that?" he panicked; maybe she was one of those Anbu Black-Ops sent to kill him. The Root agents seemed to be getting younger and younger to him. "Kai!" she exclaimed, then flashed similar fangs at him.

"Animal chakra does that to you," she confided. "But see, same here." The boy was glad to learn that she had fangs, they would probably view her as a monster too if they knew. Selfish as that sounded, that made him trust her. She wouldn't rat him out to the other kids and she wouldn't attack him for being different. They played all the games they could think of, till neither could bear to walk another step. They talked about stuff they liked, which were actually really similar (for example love of ramen). And things they didn't (like the three minutes you have to wait till you can eat it). After hearing about what an idiot Sasuke was, she agreed to help her new friend pull a prank on that loser.

Orochimaru called her over and before dashing off into his warm arms and falling asleep she remembers to ask what the jinchurikki's name is.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto."

"My name changes once in a while, but right now, you can call me Hebi Oriko."

"You'll tell me if you ever change it again?"

"Maybe, if we are friends then."

"Friends?"

"Well, yeah silly, ain't you ever had a friend?"

"I think I have one now."

"And that's how it should be. See you tomorrow!"

The snake San-nin lifted the girl into his arms and walked away.

To Naruto the snow didn't seem half so cold anymore.

"A new friend," he murmured to himself, before tuning and heading home towards the red lights district.


	3. Pranking the Prince of Winter

Chapter 3:

Shall We Prank the Ice Prince?

"Yeah, all the others think he's so cool, but really he's just a brooder who doesn't treat others with enough care." Naruto let his head fall into his hand, and sun colored tresses shaded his face. "But in the end, he'll probably still be a better ninja than me. Stupid Kekkai Genkai." He kicked a pebble that lay at his feet as if he could put all his sorrows into it and watch them all speed away along with that little gray rock.

The girl currently known as Orihime nodded sympathetically. "Bet there's nothing that special about him. Strength is part talent, but mostly mindset," she told him, smiling encouragingly. "Just never give up and you'll surely be one of the best ninjas Konoha has ever seen!" Naruto's head lifted and he smiled weakly.

"Easy for you to say, you don't have a clan name to live up to, you probably don't even have plans to be a ninja. "He poked her side. "You'll be a civilian woman, and I'll protect you." He gave a toothy grin, "in return for snacks of course." But then he sobered. "But there's nothing there for me. No family, no clan. Even if I were a civilian, who would hire or do business with me?"

Orihime didn't like to see her first human friend feel this way. "Well. For your information, I'm already training to be a fighter back home, even if I don't have a clan." She said in a proud way. "And I'm not going to let some weirdo with red eyes stop me from getting to be strong. You shouldn't either." She ruffled his blond hair. "You'll be way stronger than Sasuke one day, all you have to do is believe it."

"Believe it?" Naruto asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow at the girl as if the coral snake around her neck was cutting off her air supply.

"Yup!" said the girl, nodding furiously, "and if that's not enough, I'll have to visit you often to make sure you train constantly." She jumped into a fighting stance and Naruto copied her. "Ha!" both shouted before rushing at the other.

'Whoa,' Naruto thought, when she said she had been training, she wasn't kidding about the training. She fought well. Most of her attacks were dependent on the uncanny sense of balance she was showing to have. He threw a punch and she fell into a crouch balanced on her toe and finger tips. Even though it didn't seem very stable, she accurately launched at him and tapped him lightly on the forehead with her fist.

Those were the rules, no full strength hits. Otherwise they could seriously hurt each other. Orihime was chock full of Natural snake chakra that boosted her strength, and Naruto was over-saturated with demonic chakra. Both were equally destructive in different ways.

Tap, dodge. Tap. Spin… tap. Tap.

"I win!" exclaimed the dark skinned girl after tapping Naruto in a vital area. Underneath a few thin layers of flesh and muscle tissue lurked an important heart vessel, anyone who had a semblance of chakra control could kill him with a blow there. "Better luck next time!"

Naruto groaned at his foolishness "note to self," he murmured, "remember to carefully guard vital areas." Then, he remembered what they had met up for, "so did you bring the stuff?" Naruto asked, pulling out a bucket of glue. It had been hard to get. Few people were willing to sell anything to him, him being the Jinchūriki and all.

"Hells yes!" exclaimed the girl, laughing as Naruto blushed at her use of an expletive.

"Orihime!" he exclaimed. "You should be ashamed!" She rolled her eyes at him, obviously not seeing any problems with the use of bad words.

She opened one of the many tiny scrolls she carried in her pockets and unrolled it. It was about the size of a tube of chap-stick when rolled and unrolled it was a little bigger than her hand. Naruto's eyes widened, "cool," he breathed as she pulled her bucket of painstakingly collected feathers from inside. She reached inside the scroll again and pulled out another scroll. She showed it to Naruto. This is a shadow scroll, but I call it the image scroll. It makes an shadow, or an image of whatever it faces and seals it. Its limit is at a hundred images. We'll take pictures of Sasuke-teme after out prank with this.

"All right! Lets go!" They exclaimed and began to run to the Uchiha complex. It was only when they had already infiltrated the Uchiha compound, that they realized they had forgotten a crucial detail.

"Do you know where Sasuke's room is?" Asked the dark skinned girl, putting the heavy(or at least to her it was) metal bucket down with a soft "clink!"

"Well I guess we'll know it when we see it right?" Naruto suggested, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. They picked up their supplies and began to look around the compound, always carefully peeking carefully around corners, not wanting to be caught. Eventually Orihime had enough of the corner peeking and vocalized this opinion.

"I've had enough, there's never gonna be anyone! this place is deserted!" and as she rounded the corner without looking, she bumped into a similarly oblivious girl with black Shirley Temple curls that were nowhere near her own in intensity, but they possessed equal beauty, just of a different type. while her curls were wild. the uchiha girl's were softer, and held some semblance of organization. they also seemed to obey gravity, unlike the darker girls hair.

The pale Uchiha girl jumped and the Sharingan spun suddenly in frantic eyes. "Eeeeep!" exclaimed both girls, curls bouncing.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto and the Uchiha girl demanded to know. "Pranking Sasuke" both responded, again simultaneously.

Orihime bursts into a fit of giggles and soon the other girl joins in. "Then we're on the same team!" says the Uchiha girl.

"Then lets do it together," chimed in the darker one, nodding slowly. Then, she seemed to realize something suddenly. "By the way do you know where his room is?" She asked, rubbing the back of her head.

The Uchiha boy accompanying the girl chose this moment to speak for the first time: "follow me then, i know where it is." he walked swiftly, not running but each of his steps had purpose. they all followed, jogging, his larger steps allowing him to make an easier way of the distance. In his hands he carried a bucket of red paint, and the uchiha girl carried an identical one of orange paint.

soon they all stood within the room of the 'Ice Prince' as Orihime and Naruto had taken to calling them. "By the way," said the Uchiha girl, "I'm Setsune, who are you?"

"I'm Naruto!" Exclaimed the blonde boy, a happy smile on his face. "Uzumaki Naruto"

"I'm Hebi Orihime," replied the darker girl, "but my name changes a lot…" She seemed to remember something important, "Hey! Tall, silent, and Uchiha! whats your name?"

"Itachi." the reply was simple, short. About all the speech you would get out of Itachi Uchiha, prodigy of his clan, as well as heir to the main branch.

"I'd marry him," Orihime stage-whispered to the blonde next to her. Naruto laughed at her completely insane statement. "WHAT? I really would!"

"No he's mine!" outright shrieked the pale Uchiha girl jumping onto the darker girl. She growled and bared fang-like canine teeth. the sharingan spun in what had one been black eyes. "I'll kill you if you touch him."

"I don't see your name written on him," hissed Orihime, showing off sharp fangs that slowly began to drip with a weak venom. Weak because it wouldn't kill you, only cause nausea and eventual unconsciousness.

One girl hissed and the other growled. the setsune's haunches rose in a rather foxlike fashion. Orihime smiled, "just kidding, I don't want your boy."

"Oh. I thought I was going to have to kill you."

"Hit me again and we'll see whose dead!"

"You don't have a chance against me, I'm invincible..."

"Well I wouldn't say that about myself, but I think its enough to kick your a-"

"Shush! Quiet! Someone will hear," whispered Itachi, using his larger form to separate the two trash talking girls. he expected to see angry snarls on their faces and have them struggle. Instead he was surprised to find them both grinning ear to ear. "You suck!" whispered Setsune.

"Love you too Uchiha-Chan," smirked the darker girl, also speaking in whisper tones. Both giggled softly.

"You're one of the only people who dared to stand up to me, they know I'll kill them."

"Well, i don't seem very dead, so I'll take that as a good sign," replied Orihime.

Itachi was confused, had this been some kind of test from one to the other. he wasn't sure. and when in doubt, he always used his Sharingan. In his minds eye he rewound to the first comment that seemed to have triggered this;

"Hey, tall silent and Uchiha." He slowed it down. and saw Orihime and Setsune in perspective. Eye contact, challenge sent. Challenge accepted.

He watch an Itachi from a few minutes passed introduce himself. He watched the slow motion quirk of Orihime's lip that would've been missed in regular time. Then the full out mischievous grin that preceded the statement, "I would marry him."

The widening of black eyes, the spinning of sharingan. the expression that seemed to say: "So you are going to accept the challenge..."

Itachi didn't need to think of it further, there never had been any anger between them. "Women are strange creatures," Itachi thought to himself. He put it out of his mind, no need breaking his head over things that he couldn't fix. he assumed he couldn't fix it because nothing had been done about it till now. someone would surely have fixed it by now if there was a way. right?

Itachi thought so.

Either way, Setsune's ears were twitching. which must mean she heard something of interest. in this case it could only be one thing: "Sasuke's here, hide." they all scattered to different corners of the room, carrying with them their buckets of red and orange paint, feathers, and glue.

They all held their breaths as Sasuke's small feet padded gently across the doorjamb and into the room. Itachi, counted off with his fingers from three to one. When there were no fingers up anymore, they all dashed forward and dumped the contents of their buckets on Sasuke. There was the frantic sound of Naruto taking pictures with the image-scroll Orihime had brought. After a moment of tense silence, an Ungodly(so ungodly is deserves capitals)

"MOOOOMM!" the ice-prince screamed. The cry could've woken the dead. Instead, it awoke his mother. She had been taking her afternoon nap when she was awoken by her youngest sons yell. She jumped up from her place of resting and ran down the hall.

Hearing Mikoto's footsteps Naruto and Orihime jumped, they were under no circumstances to be found in the main Uchiha house tormenting the youngest son. "Meet you at the swings?" proposed Orihime, already forming a hand sign of the Jutsu that would take her to the playground where they had first met.

"Deal!" Exclaimed Naruto, making a fire seal. "Kai!" He vanished, leaving behind only a spiral of white smoke. Orihime used a jutsu Orochimaru had taught her before they had even left the Hebi village. She completed the seals, and it seemed as if purple snakes were wrapping around her. The cylinder of snakes seemed to narrow until they dissipated, leaving nothing in the empty space.

They both collapsed into each other amidst fits of giggles as they both reappeared next the the snow covered swing set. In fact, it was a fresh heap of snow that was covering the playground. It had snowed while they were pranking Sasuke! It could only be a gift from the snow-gods for their heroic deed.

She brushed the snow off of the end of a plastic slide and stood on it. She stuck out her tongue and flicked it upwards, then downwards. The action allowed her to find Orochimaru's presence among the thousands of chakra signatures in the village. Animals and civilians had chakra to, they just never tapped it.

Orochimaru's chakra was smooth and twisting. Pale and cold. Is she had to give it a color, it would have been white. Pure, cold, white. Like the snow, like the scales of a white snake, like his skin. Orihime had decided she liked his chakra signature, in fact, she liked it _a lot_.

Now you may wonder how one would learn such a trick, to be able to sense all the Chakra in an entire village was a nifty trick that even some jounin couldn't boast having accomplished. It was a jutsu she had learned during the time she had spent in the snake village.

She had often explored the caves that served as a natural defense around her home. But as a human, she had often gotten lost. Even with the help of small amounts of natural chakra- she was, after all still human.

The snakes used their tongues to scent their way around, but Orihime's weak human senses couldn't even begin to process the tiny scents that told the way. No matter how the snakes tried to teach her, she never got it.

One day, lost and fruitlessly trying to scent her way out, she began to panic, tongue still out in the air "why cant I do it?" she screamed, pulling at her pigtails.

She let go of her hair slowly, letting her fingers slowly disentangle from her curls. If she simply yanked her fingers out of her hair, she would be in for a world of pain . She took a deep breath. "What did Hebi-Sensei say about panic?" she drew up a blank. "No!" she said, sliding down the wall. "I will remember!" she decided stubbornly curling up in a ball. She began talking to herself, "He said when your emotions get to be to much, let them go and make new ones.

She sat staring at the ceiling until it struck her. "It doesn't matter if I can't figure it out. I've thought of something just as good. He said let my emotions go, but there are other things I could let go of. Blood, breath, chakra." Orihime blew out all the breath she had in her body and then gasped in as much air as she could fit in her lungs. She still felt angry. angrier now even. She didn't want to cut her self. So that ruled out blood. "chakra?" she asked herself. "Worth a shot."

She let all of her chakra go. It was somehow easier than using it. It just seemed to drift away, a light blue color that seemed to have the tiniest tinge of lavender to it. She watched it float away with eyes that grew less and less focused as the seconds passed. Naturally, there had been no need to teach her about the horrors of chakra depletion, she hadn't even been taught to draw it yet. She had learned by watching them, when she had been told not to, and she seemed to be facing the consequences for that now.

Her system began its slow shut down as her chakra reserves began to meet their limits. Drowsiness began to come over her, but she had enough presence of mind to realize f she fell asleep in the caves, she'd die of hunger, or something. Well it felt like hunger. It was an emptiness in her stomach. She pressed her hands over her chakra center as it began to ache, thinking it was just extreme hunger.

When in fact, it was her chakra coils reaching out for chakra and finding none. She got up and didn't feel lost any longer. If she concentrated, she could see a map of the entire cave in her walked it carefully but quickly in a state of half sleep. Eventually she stepped out into the twilight of the town, tumbled a few more steps and then instantly passed out from chakra depletion.

She was healed by the snakes, though she herself knew not how, being near dead at the time and what not. But she knew when she awoke how to feel roughly how much chakra one had left and, that somehow she could use chakra to orient herself.

She wouldn't figure out how it worked, not till the next time she got lost. Which, knowing our young snake maiden, would not take long.

Orihime locked onto the unique chakra signature that she used to identify Orochimaru. She used the map of Konoha in her head to navigate herself to wherever he was. As they walked, Naruto spoke of seals that he had read about, and she half-listened. He seemed to have a pretty good theoretical understanding of beginners seals for a kid who had barely begun to even wish to join the academy.

She nodded, he would make a great seal forger one day if anyone bothered to take him seriously. She would definitely try to keep contact with him. He even made her want to try and find her own specialty Perhaps she would be a seal master too. "No rush," she said to herself, displaying the lazy carelessness she would embody for the rest of her life.

It was midday so no snow fell from the sky. Instead the sun shone on the brilliant white snow, nearly blinding all that looked for two long. Her feet sunk into the ground with audible crunches as did her blond companion's. They walked into the establishment where Orochimaru's signature was strongest.

It turned out to be some sort of bar. Orihime walked in and as she did gave the Barman such a pretty smile he forgot that she towed a Jinchūriki behind her on top of being too young to have any business walking into a bar anyway.

On one of the tall chairs sat a tall figure with dark skin and an afro. He could have been Orihime's father, but he wasn't. Golden eyes with slitted pupils identified him as something as other than the average Kumogakure inhabitant, Few ninjas whatsoever had such eyes.

It wasn't just the unnatural looking golden color either, the eyes were full of ambition, hunger for more of... something, intelligence, perhaps- even a tinge of mania. They were eyes that looked upon death of others with boredom and yet could fill with blood thirsty rage if one pressed the right buttons.

It was into this gaze she stepped pulling an uncomfortable Jinchūriki with her. "Hi!" The golden eyes focused, slit pupils contracting, as the owner's thoughts returned to the present. "We pranked Sasuke-teme!" she exclaimed, her brown curls bouncing in a violent fashion.

"Language," Orochimaru chastened, placing a firm hand on her head to still her excited hopping. Once her feet were planted firmly on the ground, she and Naruto told Orochimaru about the prank they pulled on the youngest Uchiha. The comically exaggerated stories that one could only hear from children made him chuckle softly despite himself. It was a dark laugh, but a laugh all the same. "What wonderful little deviants you children are. Next time set something on fire." Orihime smiled and nodded. She did like fire after all..

The Snake-Maidens stomach gurgled loudly and a barely noticeable pink tinge grew in her cheeks. Orochimaru could only tell the difference because of the hours she had spent napping on his lap, giving him plenty of time to contemplate her complexion. "Did you anything since breakfast?" he asked her, wondering how a child who had eaten six large bowls of ramen that morning could be so hungry by noon that her stomach growled audibly. "The snakes must have overfed her," the though idly.

It wasn't as if he was hard-pressed for Ryo, so it didn't matter much if a lot of money went to food. He sighed and fished out his wallet. He payed for his drink and tossed the wallet over to the small dark skinned girl who fumbled a bit as she caught it, not having yet figured out how her hands worked. like most children her age, she was still developing coordination. He wondered again if it was normal for a girl to eat her weight in food each day, but then he thought: "Well at least we wont have to worry about her growing too thin." He shrugged and went back to his drink as she walked out of the bar with her Demon-friend.

He felt her chakra and followed it mentally, calling up a map of Konoha he had memorized earlier analyzed her direction and where it would take her. Everything went fine for the longest time, she and the blonde one wandered around the park area for a while, but suddenly, they seemed to gain a purposeful direction toward the Northeast. But Northeast from where they were was the Red-Lights District... where a few Ninja related violent murders had occurred. This wouldn't have scare the snake San-nin except for the fact that he didn't think Orihime would be able to handle herself if someone tried to attack her without warning.

The snakes would have his head on a stake if anything happened to their precious charge. He got up from his seat and walked onto the sidewalk, shaking off the strange woman who had seemed to have the ridiculous notion that he would have any reason to want to talk to her. He began picking up speed as soon he was out of the densely packed streets. He sent Chakra to his feet, letting him move even faster.

As he entered the Red-Lights District, he let his henge fall away. There was no danger in doing so, the people here would never report him. The upstanding citizens who commonly reported Missing-Nin would never be here, and if they were, they would never let it be known. His skin paled, his features sharpened, and his hair became straight, inky black tresses hanging to brush his neck as he swerved to avoid a large group of babbling Oiran that walked in the middle of the pedestrian-only streets the Red-Lights Districts all had.

He closed his eyes, the building in front of him, then up. That was where she was. In a apartment? She wouldn't follow anyone she didn't know into an enclosed space that only the other knew. The Uchiha Complex had plenty of large windows and doors to escape from, but an apartment was small and had three or four windows on average. One door. She didn't trust humans much either. So she definitely wouldn't have gone willingly. He used Chakra to climb up the side of the building ad swing himself in through a cracked open window, all in the blink of an eye. He stood up in a fighting stance, but instead of a potential opponent, he saw Orihime and the Kyu-Naruto sitting on the floor with scroll paper stuck to their cheeks and smudges of in all over their small hands and arms. He relaxed his posture as soon as it became clear to him that there was no danger.

As a child raised by snakes and hunted by the Mist, in the Red-Lights District with a Jinchūriki was as safe as it got.

* * *

**AN**: So here's Chapter 4

Please no flames, just constructive criticisms, and don't be afraid to point out mistakes, I can take it.

Also, read Princessbravegeta's story "The Last Female Uchiha," it's a contest you know. Who can get the most favorites or subscribes or reviews. But I guess you don't have to, it does go hand in hand with this story though, so you might wanna read it anyway...

If you're wondering about ages,

Itachi: 9

Setsune: 8

Orihime: 5, Birthday just passed in November

(Which is funny because I'm actually older that Setsune in real life)

Naruto: 4

Sasuke-teme: 4

Mameyuri: 23

Sakurai: 20

Orochimaru: Orochimaru's age is never really specified, but I'm guessing it to be around 35-40 but whatever age, I'd still hop on it ;).

I LOVE YOU ALL, AND PLEASE REVIEW!

~*~Miss Miazaki ~*~


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